Kia Orana
Te Marae Ora (TMO) wishes to provide the following update:
The Cook Islands remains COVID-19 free.
Alert Level 2 has been extended until 11.59pm Monday 13 September 2021.
A new Ministerial Order in place until 11.59pm Monday 13 September 2021, allows for gatherings of over 100 people, with no exemption required from TMO. All gatherings of 25 people or more, must, however, be registered with TMO, and it is now compulsory for everyone attending these gatherings to tag-in or manually register their attendance. The onus for ensuring attendees register is on the event / gathering organiser.
The same Ministerial Order allowed for sea and air travel between the Pa Enua and Rarotonga to resume; all passengers are required to undergo health screening prior to departure from Rarotonga.
While Air New Zealand flights have been flying into Rarotonga, they have not carried any inwards passengers since Monday 16 August.
Meanwhile over 3150 passengers have left since 16 August. The next departing flight for Auckland will be tomorrow, Saturday 4 September (CK time).
Testing locations were operating in Rarotonga and Aitutaki today. These testing locations were also administering influenza vaccinations.
Close to 3000 people on Rarotonga have had the government funded flu shot since the announcement eight days ago. The availability of the flu vaccine, at no cost, to everyone from age 6-months, has been extended to the end of Monday – 6 September, 2021.
There will not be any drive-through testing or flu vaccination locations operating this weekend, however, flu vaccines will be available from Constitution Park and Tupapa Public Health on Monday from 9am and 3pm.
Over the last 18 days, 3016 swabs from Rarotonga, Aitutaki and Mauke have been received for processing in the lab at Rarotonga Hospital, all returning negative results.
ENDS: For more information, please visit www.health.gov.ck or contact Jaewynn McKay; jaewynn.mckay@cookislands.gov.ck +682 55486